Tag: unica

GREAT NEW JUICE FROM SIERRA CANTABIA

It’s a family affair in a way. We have been fans of Sierra Cantabria at many levels for a couple of decades. We almost feel a familial connection with a couple of Rioja producers (Sierra Cantabria, Muga, La Rioja Alta, and Lopez de Heredia). We have met the owners, visited the wineries, and sold their wines consistently for a long time. Even though there are no ‘automatics’ at Winex, and we look hard at every new vintage of everything, it is almost inconceivable that we wouldn’t have something on the floor from each of these producers.

Sierra Cantabria just recently rolled out an impressive ‘triple play’. The lineup is distinctive, with stylistic variety based on different philosophies for each wine and sourcing from three different vintages. We have already done an email in the two sensational Gran Reserva efforts, Sierra Cantabria Rioja Gran Reserva 2009 and the Egurens’ single vineyard estate El Puntido Rioja Gran Reserva 2007. The reviews are sensational, the styles distinctive, and we advise you to check this pair of classics out if you didn’t see that offer.

Since we almost never put more than two items in an email these days, we did not include this one in that offer. But the Sierra Cantabria Rioja Reserva Unica 2016 is another really impressive effort that certainly should not be overlooked. We just finished up the last bottle of the 2009, and it was smoking! This 2016 comes from a great vintage and is perhaps finer tuned and more seamless than that ’09 from a warmer vintage.

This series has been around since at least 2008 and, while it is done in the traditional manner (as you’ll see in Jeb Dunnuck’s notes below), this definitely sports a fresher, more modern bent to the fruit and comes off a bit more modern. Lots of dark cherry and red plum fruit with a subtle underpinning of earthy minerality and baking spice. Appealing and pretty user friendly out of the gate, as that 2009 demonstrated, it will age nicely if that is the call.

From Jeb Dunnuck, “The 2016 Reserva Unica comes from a single vineyard located in the alluvial soils beside the Ebro river. Made from 97% Tempranillo and 3% Graciano that was all destemmed and aged 24 months in 30% new French and America oak, this deep, concentrated 2016 packs some serious muscle in its blackcurrants, black cherry, licorice, toasted spice, and dried earth-like aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, with a dense, concentrated mid-palate and ripe tannins, give bottles a few years in a cold cellar and enjoy over the following 10-15 years…94 points.”

A great choice at a modest $24.98, it’s a sensational value for a quality red.

SIERRA CANTABRIA UNICA 2014: MUY TASTY

The Eguren brothers have their fingers in a lot of pies including Dominio de Eguren in Manchuela, the single vineyard estate Senorio de San Vincente, and Teso la Monja, an estate they started after they sold their previous Toro project, Numanthia. Yeah the boys are busy (they currently operate six wineries), but it all centers around the original property founded five generations earlier in 1870, Sierra Cantabria. They started as growers that for decades sold their grapes to other wineries and they still see themselves as viticulturists first. But they clearly know what to do with the juice.

Sierra Cantabriamakes a number of different wines but this series (which started in 2008 if memory serves) has been perhaps one of the best performers all things considered. Made from vines planted in 1985 in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, the wine itself is made from 98% Tempranillo with a pinch (2%) ‘older vine Grenache’. The wine sees 24 months in 60% French and 40% American oak, 30% of which is new. There’s no pretense at ‘traditional’ styling here even though it qualifies under the law.

This is a big, ripe mouthful of plush, ripe black fruits, spice cake, earthy minerality and hints of smoke. The bottle age is clearly sufficient to take whatever edge off this wine it might have had, and it now presents itself as an open, fruit driven wave of flavor. It’s very well put together but in a more ‘bottoms up’ style that doesn’t require a lot of thinking. In other words lush, easy to like stuff. The critics seemed to like it well enough. Both Vinous’ Josh Raynolds and Wine Spectator hung 92s on this one. Raynolds said, “…Sappy and focused on the palate, offering juicy raspberry, cherry and spicecake flavors that put on weight with air. Shows excellent precision on the clinging finish, which features sweet red fruit liqueur and floral elements and harmonious, silky tannins.”

Wine Spectator’s Thomas Mathews offered, “Vanilla, sandalwood and cedar notes lend a spicy accent to the cherry, tangerine, underbrush and licorice flavors in this round red. Shows good density, with well-integrated tannins and lively acidity imparting focus. Tempranillo and Graciano. Drink now through 2026.”

The highest praise, and a bit of explanation, came from Jeb Dunnuck, “The 2014 Sierra Cantabria Reserva Única is a cellar selection of the best barrels of the Reserve, selected with the idea of making a big, rich wine that can drink well in its youth yet also age. Blackberry, blueberry, violet, peach pit, graphite, and lead pencil notes all flow to a rich, medium to full-bodied, beautifully balanced red that has good acidity, fine tannin, and a great finish. This sexy, decadent, layered beauty shouldn’t be missed! …94 points.”

It is absolutely “big, rich wine that can drink well in its youth” which will definitely make a few new friends for Spain but not at the exclusion of long time fans of Rioja.